It’s time once again for The SKTCHD AWRDS, my absolutely real, completely not fake awards show where I celebrate the year that was in comics. And what a year it was, as it was a glorious slate of comics, graphic novels, manga, webtoons, web comics, zines, minicomics, and everything else you can possibly imagine from a medium that’s bursting at the seams with talent and incredible work. It’s a good time to be a comic reader, and the two weeks of these awards are designed to celebrate the highlights from the year that was.

While next week will get into my Comics of 2024, this week’s focus is exclusively on the writers, artists, colorists, letterers, and editors who helped make this year a standout one. I’ll be handing out 25 awards to these folks over the next five days, with each award focusing on a specific trait, aspect, or idea that I associate with a person’s work from the year that was.

As per usual, though, this was an endeavor that was guided by rules. I’m not the one who makes them. Actually, scratch that…I am the one who makes them, and because of that, I will also abide by them. Those rules are the following:

• These are my favorite creators of the year rather than the “best.” As much reading as I did — and I did a lot — I didn’t read everything and I can only represent myself anyways, so “favorite” felt fairer than “best.”
• The SKTCHD AWRDS only consider work released in 2024. However, if the material was previously published in print in English or I read it in another format before this year (i.e. single issues), it wasn’t included. Apologies to most trade paperbacks released in 2024 as well as reprints of graphic novels (like E.M. Carroll’s When I Arrived at the Castle)!
• Cartoonists were omitted from this if their only work of the year makes the cut in the Comics of 2024 list that arrives next week. That is, unless they did other things that ensure they make it for reasons beyond that single work. That means some creators who would have made this list were exempted and that this list isn’t necessarily a predictive guide to my favorite comics of the year. Keep that in mind when you ask things like, “Where is (creator x) or (creator y)?”

That’s it! No more rules! It’s now time to celebrate my favorite creators of 2024. My picks will be organized alphabetically by first name, and today’s entry showcases a quintet of talents that helped make this year as great as it was for me as a reader.

The Architect Award: Álvaro Martínez Bueno

2024 Work: The Nice House by the Sea

Why They Earned This Award: “Architect, David? Really?” you might be thinking. “That’s lazy.” And sure, maybe it is. Connecting the gifts of Álvaro Martínez Bueno and his work on The Nice House by the Sea to a derivative word from that title could certainly be considered that. But this is about more than Bueno’s gifts at designing nice houses, even though he’s very, very good at that.

It’s about his ability to take a complex story filled with dozens of characters (two dozen cast members plus their two minders, without factoring in any extras who show up), a bevy of environments, and a ton of timeframes and turn it into something that isn’t just decipherable but spectacular. While the idea of the story is tremendous and Bueno’s collaborators are exceptional, his ability to make the larger Nice House series not just make sense but pop while hitting readers with the big emotions we need to feel is nothing short of remarkable. He takes all those disparate parts and pieces and builds something incredible out of it.

Now, that’s what we’ve come to expect out of Bueno and his work. But you can still see him getting better with each passing issue. His character work is incrementally better. His storytelling is that much clearer. He haunts our souls slightly more each time a disturbing moment hits. He was already a master, but Bueno just keeps improving, and it’s truly a wonder to behold.

The Got Now Award: Becca Carey

2024 Work: Absolute Wonder Woman, Absolute Superman, Black Cloak, The Horizon Experiment, Universal Monsters: Frankenstein, etc.

Why They Earned This Award: If there’s an ascendant star in the lettering game, it might be Becca Carey. That’s not to say she’s new or even newly impressive. She has — and has always — crushed it on great comics. This year’s slate, which includes her exquisite work on comics like the innovative The Horizon Experiment, the character-fueled sci-fi of Black Cloak, and the haunting and emotional Universal Monsters: Frankenstein, is proof of that. Those projects are evidence that Carey’s position in the lettering game isn’t a “got next” type situation as much it is a “got now” one. She’s here, and been here, doing exceptional things on every comic she works on.

But it’s undeniable that being the letterer on two of the three launch titles for DC’s Absolute universe may have changed how she’s perceived. Those projects act as a remarkable showcase for her gifts, raising awareness in Carey and what she does to the stratosphere. And what she does is find the right answer each and every time. Take the above page from Absolute Wonder Woman #1 as just one example. That final panel is one of the most essential from the entire issue, a spoken word that needed to hit — and hit hard. Carey’s execution of the idea that it needed to be said in hushed tones was perfect. More than that, it was exactly what this comic and its readers needed to maximize the moment.

That’s what Carey does every time, and that’s what more and more readers are discovering about her work with each and every new project she takes on.